


The World's Alive (With the Sound of Kids on the Street Outside)

by ShowMeAHero



Series: Swing Life Away [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Children, Children, Domestic, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Easter, Easter Egg Hunt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Fluff, Fun, Humor, Kid Fic, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 07:12:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14100129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShowMeAHero/pseuds/ShowMeAHero
Summary: Easter rolls around. Easter egg hunts initiate a Darwin-esque instinct to destroy the weak in Steve and Bucky's children.





	The World's Alive (With the Sound of Kids on the Street Outside)

**Author's Note:**

> This has taken me _days_ to write because I'm so weak. I hope you enjoy it as much as I needed it.
> 
> Happy almost-Easter to those among you who celebrate! If you don't, happy April or [insert other celebration here]!
> 
> The (horrifically long) title taken from ["Heaven Is A Place On Earth"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOGEyBeoBGM) by Belinda Carlisle.

“Please keep your dress on,” Bucky asked Maggie from the floor. She flung her dress at his face just as Steve came in the doorway, Milo on his hip. He leaned against the jamb, grinning.

“We ready to go yet?” Steve asked. Bucky just turned to glare at him. Steve laughed. “Point taken.”

“Dumbass,” Bucky said. Steve lifted Milo.

“I got _him_ dressed,” Steve said. “Got an excuse?”

“Uhh, there’s four in here, jagoff,” Bucky said. He motioned at Milo. “You had the easiest one.”

“Excuse you,” Steve said. “He’s been trying to eat my hair all week.”

“Then cut it.”

“No.”

“My point stands, then,” Bucky said. Maggie tried to sprint past Steve, but he reached down and grabbed her by the wrist.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” he asked, and she gave him a sheepish smile.

“I don’t wanna wear my dress,” she told Steve. He glanced to Winnie, who was sitting quietly on the coach in her dress while she brushed her teddy bear’s fur. He turned back to Maggie, red-faced and defiant.

“You either match Winnie and Sarah or you match Shay and Milo,” Steve told her. She glanced back at Shay, who Bucky was now wrangling into his suit pants, then at Sarah, who was reading a book by the window.

“I wanna match you,” she said to Steve.

“Well, I’m matching Shay and Milo, so suit it is,” Steve said. He set Milo on the ground and swung Maggie up on his hip. He left Bucky with the other four kids in the living room.

“Are you excited for Easter?” Bucky asked Shay as his son glared at him.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Not even for your basket?” Bucky asked. Shay shrugged.

“Did you have baskets when you were little?” Winnie asked. She had gotten up from the sofa to climb into Bucky’s lap, teddy bear and all.

“People did,” Bucky said. “Daddy and I didn’t.”

“Because it was so long ago?” Sarah asked, book in her lap. Bucky frowned at her.

“Because we had no money, maggot,” he said. Sarah stuck her tongue out at him.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Don’t act like one,” he said. She hid a laugh behind her book as she buried her face back into the pages. “I used to hide eggs for Daddy and your aunt Becca.”

“You weren’t good at it,” Steve said, re-entering the room with Maggie in one of the backup matching Easter suits Bucky had gotten when he foresaw exactly this scenario.

“At least it was done,” Bucky told him. Steve let Maggie fling herself to the floor and tackle Winnie to the ground. “You ready to go?”

Bucky watched Steve make his quick headcount that he had spent nine years adding to. When Bucky glanced around the room, everyone was at least mostly-dressed with their hair mostly-combed. The little floral ties that Maggie, Shay, and Milo were wearing matched Sarah’s and Winnie’s dresses, their pastel-blue suits identical in color to Sarah’s and Winnie’s shoes. He and Steve had ties that matched, as well.

“Stark’s gonna mock us,” Steve said, looking them over as Bucky heaved himself to his feet and swung Milo up into his arms. Bucky shrugged.

“He’s just lonely,” Bucky told him. He snapped his fingers. “Get over here, all of you. Line up nice so I can make sure you all look human.”

Their children did as asked, with as much grumbling as they could manage, but soon they were all stood in a line from oldest to youngest, Winnie and Maggie wrestling for the position of older twin.

“Maggie is older, we’ve been _over this,”_ Bucky announced, and Maggie proudly took her spot next to Sarah. Winnie stood between her twin and Shay. Bucky sat Milo at the end of the line and stood back to look at them.

“I’d say they look acceptable,” Steve said, arms folded across his chest. Bucky assessed them one-by-one.

“Winnie, straighten Shay’s tie for him, please,” Bucky said. Winnie did as asked, then stood at attention again. Bucky clapped his hands together, and they all relaxed. “Great, let’s go— _Maggie,_ if I have to tell you to keep your pants on _one more time,_ I’m going to throw you out the window.”

“You won’t!” Maggie shouted back, but she buttoned her pants back up anyways. Bucky snapped his fingers and motioned towards the door.

“Let’s go, troops,” he instructed. Steve pulled up the end of the line with Milo, and Bucky leaned in to kiss his son’s cheek.

“Good work,” Steve whispered to him. Bucky shoved him forwards to follow the line Sarah was leading out of the house. The Avengers compound had every house arranged like a little neighborhood cul-de-sac, and Sarah took off at a sprint through the warm April morning towards Tony’s house. Winnie and Maggie started running behind her, Shay trying his best not to trip while he attempted to catch up.

“Jesus Christ, will you chill out?” Tony said, sitting on his front steps, acting like he wasn’t waiting for exactly this. “You, calm down. Nobody’s starting without you. You’d kill us if we did.”

“She’d be justified,” Bucky said. Steve passed Milo to Bruce when he stuck his head out the front door. “Is anyone else here yet?”

“Everyone else is here already,” Tony said. “What took you so damn long, anyways?”

Steve raised an eyebrow as Bucky waved an arm over the kids. “Do you see how they’re all dressed in matching outfits? Hair in braids? I deserve a fucking medal.”

“Papa, don’t cuss,” Winnie shouted from the the patch of grass Maggie was attempting to push her face into. Bucky rubbed his face with his hands.

“Do you want one?” he asked Bruce. “You can have one. You can have _five.”_

“Papa!” Sarah yelled at him. Thor came up behind her and lifted her off her feet, holding her upside-down by her ankles.

“Do you have a complaint, child?” Thor asked. “Back in Asgard, you could’ve been raised by anybody. I could’ve taken you off the street. Nobody would’ve batted an eye.”

“I _am_ being raised by anybody,” Sarah said, face getting red. Bruce spun his finger at Thor, and Thor set the nine-year-old back on her feet. “I got adopted. I’m their ward.”

“Believe me, if you were just their ward, you’d be Robin-ing on the streets by now,” Clint told them. “Come on, get in the backyard, we’ve got your egg hunt all set up and we can’t eat brunch until you’re done.”

“They are _color-coded,”_ Sam announced loudly, as Winnie and Maggie sprinted at his legs. “Slow down, _slow down,_ holy shit, get a grip.”

“Don’t _cuss,”_ Winnie scolded him into his shin. Sam reached down and pried her off, lifting her up to look her in the face.

“I can do,” he said, “anything I want. The President said so.” He deposited her back on the ground, where she glared at him before sitting down in the grass.

“Eggs!” Shay exclaimed from behind a bush. Steve plucked him up and deposited him with his sisters. Milo fell over into the grass and screamed.

“I want to return them,” Bucky said, watching them all. Natasha snorted.

“They’re _color-coded,”_ Sam said again, over the cacophony. “Sarah, yours are blue. Winnie, pink. Maggie, orange. Shay, yours are green. Milo’s are yellow.”

“Sarah, can you find Milo’s for him?” Steve asked. Sarah rolled her eyes but nodded anyways. “You’re not allowed to hang out with your father alone anymore.”

“She got that from you, you know,” Bucky murmured to him. Steve flicked his ear.

“Just take the basket,” Bruce said to Shay. “I have _no idea_ what it’s made of. We can find out, though, if we bring it inside and start testing the—”

“It’s made of Easter,” Winnie told Shay definitively. The little boy held up his basket.

“Will you help me find my eggs?” he asked. Winnie crouched to take his basket.

 _“Shay,”_ Maggie said. “Winnie needs to find her _own.”_ She scoffed and set off to retrieve her own basket from Peter. Winnie leaned down to Shay after she left.

“I’ll help you if you give me a candy,” she whispered, and Shay nodded. Steve just sat down in a lawn chair to watch.

“Does everyone have their basket?” Clint asked. Sarah held both hers and Milo’s up. Maggie knocked Winnie in the head with hers before Bucky stood up and took her aside. From the look on her face, Steve was pretty happy not to be her in that moment.

“Okay, go,” Sam announced. Sarah took off at a sprint, as did Winnie, with Shay following after her closely. Maggie, sniffling a little, started after them. Bucky collapsed onto the lawn beside Steve.

“Why did you want so many fucking kids?” Bucky asked, watching them shove each other through the bushes trying to find their correctly-colored eggs.

“You’re the one who collects ‘em,” Steve said. “I’m just the curator.”

“Fuck you, Rogers,” Bucky said. He reached up and tangled his fingers with Steve’s anyways, as Maggie pushed Winnie into a mud puddle. Bucky sighed and started to get up, but Steve squeezed his hand.

“I’ll get her, sit down,” Steve said. Maggie glanced over her shoulder when she heard Steve get up, and Steve watched her fight-or-flight instinct flicker across her face. She turned to hide in the nearest shrub, but Steve grabbed her by the back of her little blazer and swung her up onto his hip.

“Let’s go, kid,” Steve said. She was staring defiantly over his shoulder as he took her to the side lawn. When he set her down and knelt down in front of her, she continued looking away from him. Steve put his hand on her chin and pulled her attention to his face, trying not to let her big brown eyes get to him. “What’s going on with you today?”

“Nothing,” she muttered, looking down at the ground. Steve sat down fully in the grass and sighed.

“Well, you let me know when you want to talk about it,” he said. “We’ll just stay here until then.”

Maggie frowned at him, then sat down in the grass forcefully, glaring at the road. Steve leaned back on his hands and watched the other four kids cracking open their plastic eggs. Sarah split one open for Milo and moved to hand him the chocolate inside before Bucky jogged over and took it away. He let Sarah split it with him instead while Milo looked on with a frown. Maggie shuffled beside him.

“You ready?” he asked. She continued staring at the road. Steve watched Winnie and Shay struggle to crack one of their plastic eggs open until Peter came over and also struggled. Tony finally dragged himself over, continued to struggle, then summoned Thor, who smashed it in his palm while the children cheered.

“Can I go back over?” Maggie asked. Steve shook his head.

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong,” he said. She sighed, and he turned to look at her. He lifted her and set her in his lap. “What’s up, kid? You’re usually better than this.”

“I’m just mad,” she said. “I don’t know why.”

“That’s okay,” Steve said. He pulled her forward and hugged her, letting her bury her face in his neck. “You can’t take it out on your sister, though, okay? Or any of the others. That’s not fair to them, right?”

“Right,” she said.

“And you really don’t know what’s bothering you?” he asked. She shrugged. “It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone.”

“Not even Papa?” she asked. He nodded.

“Yeah, not even him,” he said. “Not if you don’t want me to.”

Maggie pulled her face back and rubbed at her eye. “Sometimes I’m just sad because there’s… I dunno.”

“Go ahead,” Steve encouraged, when she paused.

“I just get lonely,” she said. “I miss you.”

“You miss me?” he asked.

“And Papa,” she said. “You’re busy all the time, and everyone’s busy all the time, and I know I can play with everyone else but sometimes I just feel lonely.”

“That’s okay,” Steve told her, tugging her back in to hug again. “How about we set aside some time to spend with just you, hm? You and me. You can do it with Papa, too. How’s that?”

“That’s good,” she said, rubbing her teary face on his shirt. He lifted her up and stood, picking up her basket.

“You okay to go back now?” he asked. “Gonna stop hitting your sister?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Tell Papa not to use his scary voice anymore.”

“No promises, baby,” Steve said, before taking her back to the group. At some point, someone’s bunny ears ended up on Bucky’s head, and every attempt he made to remove them made Shay cry, so he was just sitting with them on and glaring at Steve.

“Not a word,” he said, as Steve set Maggie down. She went to talk quietly to Winnie, who pat her twin on the head and offered her an egg. “Everything alright with her?”

“I think she needs a little more individual attention,” Steve said, falling down onto the grass beside him. He watched Thor set Sarah on his shoulder so she could climb up into a tree more easily and pretended he wasn’t having a small heart attack. “They probably all do.”

“Yeah, so do I,” Bucky said. “Take me on a date. Let’s leave them all behind. Start a new life.”

“You love them,” Steve said, as a Hershey’s kiss hit him on the face, followed by Shay shouting, “Sorry, Daddy! Eat it!”

“I guess,” Bucky said, as he got similarly pinged between the eyes with a mini peanut butter cup. He picked it up in his metal hand and flung it back, letting it hit Shay on the shoulder.

 _“Papa!”_ Shay exclaimed, scandalized. Bucky yanked up a bunch of grass and stood, dropping it over Shay’s head as the boy shrieked. Steve stretched out in the grass and watched the chaos.

“They’re getting all muddy,” Bruce said, from somewhere above and behind him.

“At this point,” Steve said, “I can’t even make myself care.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have a blog now to request imagines - I just like to make people happy. Submit requests [here!](https://imagine-in-the-fandoms.tumblr.com/ask)
> 
> I also actually wrote a book. It was a long road but, I did it! Ta-da It's about two young ladies who hunt aliens and fall in love. If you want to read it, shoot me a message!
> 
> You can follow me on Twitter at [@nicoIodeon](https://twitter.com/nicoIodeon) or on Tumblr at [andillwriteyouatragedy](http://andillwriteyouatragedy.tumblr.com/).


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